


The Swamp Witches and I

by CorpseCally



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, don't get your hopes up I'm known to disappoint everyone in my life, maybe someday, says the magic conch shell, she/her pronouns for pidge, story trailer, when will my motivation return from war, who knows - Freeform, will I ever make this a full story?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-10
Updated: 2017-11-10
Packaged: 2019-01-31 10:10:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12679731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorpseCally/pseuds/CorpseCally
Summary: It was strange to wake up to feeling nothing. There was no pain where there should have been. He vaguely recalled screaming, a flash of white, fire, burning... it was all jumbled up. The memory ghosting behind lids just out of reach. Trying to will them out of his foggy mind was pointless but that didn't stop him from trying. The only thing that kept ringing, crisp and clear, in his head was a name.Shiro.___This is a story trailer for an idea I was toying with. I posted this on amino for a contest and honestly I have no idea I'm going to go through with it. Having second thoughts. But a friend convinced me to post it here too and see what people say. Thanks for reading.





	The Swamp Witches and I

**Author's Note:**

> Technically speaking... I have the chapters set up but because of the challenge this was for I broke it down and piled it together. So each segment is from a chapter. Again, this is a story trailer so while this piece won't be updated, this story will be in a separate work. The title might also change as well. Not too pleased with the current one. It's just a placeholder for now. I hope you enjoy this to some extent. Maybe I'll make this a chapter story soon.

It was strange to wake up to feeling nothing. There was no pain where there should have been. He vaguely recalled screaming, a flash of white, fire, burning... it was all jumbled up. The memory ghosting behind lids just out of reach. Trying to will them out of his foggy mind was pointless but that didn't stop him from trying. The only thing that kept ringing, crisp and clear, in his head was a name.

Shiro. 

Who was this Shiro? Was it his own name? Perhaps it was. He could only hope it was. This was a step in the right direction, something to cling to and keep him grounded. At the very least if anyone asked he knew what to say... 

Shiro opened his eyes. Nothing around him looked familiar. The only thing lighting the room was a small, dingy lantern that looked just about ready to burn out. In the dim light, he could make out stacks of books on the floor, papers strewn about and shelves with vials of something he couldn't quite place. Maybe that was for the better that he couldn't tell what was in them. 

He sat upright and tried to rub the black spots from his vision. Even when he had stopped, he kept the heel of his palm against his forehead in hopes of it helping him remember more than just a name that he wasn't entirely sure was even his. He sighed heavily.

"It sounds like you're awake..." 

No luck of course, but this stranger might have the answers he's looking for. It was worth a shot. 

"Do you remember anything?" 

"... Sh-..." His voice sounded awful. "Shi-ro." It felt foreign on his tongue. "I'm- Shiro? I- think." 

The stranger laughed. "Alright then. Shiro. Do you remember anything else?" The stranger carefully walked towards to the bed, not really looking at him. From what Shiro could make out, it looked like a young man in a rich blue cloak. He stood out like a sore thumb against the shades of brown in his wooden room. 

"..." Shiro wondered if he should even bother rambling off the incoherent flashes of color and things he saw before he woke up. What would the point be? He would just sound like a fool. "No-... Just that. Do-" He looked up at the stranger. "Do you know-"

The stranger shook his head before Shiro could finish. "Sadly, I didn't know a Shiro in my life... until now." He sat on the edge of the bed, nearly missing, and facing the wall. "What I can tell you is I stumbled upon you in the remains of a burning building I believe. Don't know how you survived. The place reeked of charred death." He chuckled. "Best be thankful too. I nearly tripped and snapped my neck before I realized it was a person on the ground." 

"Oh- I, um- I’m sorry for the trouble.” Shiro managed to catch a glimpse of the other’s wrist peaking out from his sleeve. They looked painfully thin which only made Shiro feel worse. “I must have been a pain to drag all the way here.” He tried to laugh it off. 

The boy hummed softly before he spoke again. “Well, I had some help from a friend. You’ll meet them soon enough.” He stood up a bit too stiffly. Shiro noted the way he moved around the room seemed a bit too foreign for someone he assumed lived here. He felt horrible when the poor boy knocked around one of the book stacks. “Just- focus on getting better!” 

“... of course…” Shiro chose not to mention the mess on the floor. It was bound to happen in such lighting. 

“There should be a cup of tea on the table. Still warm last I checked. Drink it.” The boy left without another word. Though it was brief, Shiro noticed how the hallway was pitch black. There wasn’t a single candle light outside of this room from what he could tell. 

He shrugged it off. It was a minor detail he could fret over later. Shiro turned his attention towards the still steam cup. It smelled oddly strong, enough to rouse the tiniest bit of suspicion. The room was perfumed with the scent of honey, vanilla, and…. something else? He sniffed in deeply. “Chamomile?” He wasn’t sure. There was only way to find out if it was poisoned or not. 

Shiro tried to reach over but was confused when he couldn’t. He tried again, and again, and again… The snarl that was growing in his throat soon died when he finally saw the problem. 

“My- m-my-” The room began to spin. “It’s gone!” His sleeve was tied in a knot right where is forearm should have started. There was no pain emitting, no bleeding, but panic won the better of him. “Why- when did-” 

Just as the lantern had finally burned out, Shiro fainted. 

* * *

 

The sun was setting when he opened his eyes again. The room was even messier than he had thought. He didn’t bother to look at the vials on the shelves. Shiro had enough surprises in a short span of time. 

“Has anyone ever told you that you sleep like the dead?” It took every fiber of his being not to jump when he finally noticed the stranger from the night before was crouched by the bed. He faced the wall just like the time before. “Barely even breathe. You gave me quite the scare for a moment.” 

“Sorry…” 

“It’s fine. How are you feeling?” 

Shiro thought for a moment. Despite the shock from last night, he felt relatively fine. “Just got this weird headache…” It didn’t hurt exactly. Shiro found it more bothersome than all else. Strange as it seemed, he wasn’t about to complain. 

“That’s good.” Shiro was surprised that was all he had to say. The boy was completely silent now.

“... you aren’t going to ask about-?”  

“Nope.” The boy already seemed to know before Shiro even got the chance to finish. “No need to know. Unless you want me to know?” 

He didn’t even know himself how it happened but judging from smoothed over skin this wasn’t a recent event. “I couldn’t even begin to tell you… even if I wanted to…” He really didn’t. Not one bit. 

“We all have our- inconveniences, Shiro. There’s no point in pressing people about it.” 

“You sound like you know what it’s like to be-” He didn’t know how to put it, not nicely anyway. 

“Different? Of course. I’m about as different as they come.” The boy stood up. “And I’m perfectly content with being different.” For the first time, he turned to face Shiro. His eyes were closed as grinned brighter than the sun. 

“... what’s your name?” 

“It’s Lance.” The smile didn’t falter. It made Shiro’s insides feel odd. “Now rest up before that headache of yours gets worse.” 

Lance left before he could protest. There was no point in resting. He had done enough of laying around but Shiro had a feeling Lance would be hard to convince otherwise. At the very he could distract himself with the sea of books. Maybe he could even find some answers…   
  


* * *

 

Several days had passed since he had first woken up in Lance’s little home. Shiro wasn’t allowed to walk around just yet even when he had insisted he was perfectly fine. All he could was read and grumble when his too long hair would get in the way of his vision. Although the books served a good distraction but they didn’t exactly help his situation. Most of them were recipe books for some strange concoctions, some weren’t even completely filled up. He found a few alchemy books as well. Shiro was only about 20 books in which barely made a dent in the messy pile. He had just finished one on medicinal herbs and plant life to avoid. 

Shiro grabbed another without looking. This one looked particularly old. He flipped through the pages, most of them were blank, only the first few had writing. “... Necromancy?” Shiro was only vaguely familiar with the magic arts, although it only frustrated him that he could recall witchery over something a bit more useful to him. If memory served, this was generally a forbidden thing amongst magic wielders. 

“Only a fool would rise the dead.” This was probably the ramblings of a very old witch. “ _ Heed this warning _ .” Shiro mimicked what he thought this old witch sounded like. He expected this to a boring, rather predictable read. “Who would be dumb enough to-” He went quiet as he turned to the next page. His head began to pound. 

_ The Loyal Undead _

This wasn’t what he was expecting. Something about it didn’t sit well the more he read. It was a very, very detailed list on how to bring back the dead as if it were completely normal. The pounding in his head became worse the more he read. Apparently undead companions were common for witches to have as servants, helpers. 

_ The undead don’t need much rest. They don’t need to be fed much. And if you know what you’re doing, they won’t need to be supervised for very long either.  _

Shiro rubbed his stomach as he tried not to think about the many times Lance had offered him food and he brushed him off. He thought nothing of it in the moment but now- “It’s… impossible…”

_ It would still be best to check on them every so often. Their senses are dulled, therefore leaving them unaware of their own limits. If left to their own devices for too long, they could completely fall apart.  _

“Dulled… sense…” The room was spinning. “No- I’m not…” This was merely coincidence. It couldn’t be anything more than that. He was no mindless undead monstrosity. He just wasn’t. He couldn’t be one. 

Shiro never finished reading the book. He placed it neatly on the pile next to him. For the sake of his sanity, he pretended as if it never existed and moved on the next mountain of books. He was relieved when the next one was merely about plants.

* * *

 

“What do you mean he’s still hogging my room? How long has it been now?” 

“A little over a week I think?” 

“Exactly! So why is he still in there I thought you said he was perfectly fine now!” 

“Well, yes but he doesn’t remember- Wait! Pidge! What are you-!” 

This Pidge person came barging in nearly tearing down the door in the process. They took one quick look around the room before they started screaming. “What have you done!?” They looked just about ready to faint. Shiro couldn’t quite figure out why. 

“I… cleaned up?” Shiro was no where near finished reading all the books but he grew quickly tired of sitting around just reading. He tidied up. It was mainly out of courtesy for Lance. 

“But- but why!? Everything was fine before!” Their voice became more shrill. They were deeply upset over this. “You even touched my paperwork!” Pidge collapsed, completely defeated. “How could you-”

“Be so kind!” Lance swooped in, closed eyes and sunny smile. “You should be thanking Shiro for cleaning up your mess!” 

“Thank him…? Thank him!? I knew where everything was before! Don’t you see-” Pidge clapped their hands over their mouth. “Lance! I’m so sorry!” 

That sunny smile twitched just a tiny bit. “It’s fine.” Lance turned to leave. “I’m used to it.” 

“Lance! Wait, please!” Pidge tried to reach for Lance’s cloak but stopped short. They let their hands fall to their sides. “...dammit…” 

Shiro wondered if he were partially at fault for this. He toyed with the idea of apologizing but he decided it was best not to. It would probably only make Pidge more upset. “Do you want to be left alone…?” It seemed like a safe enough thing to ask. This was also the perfect opportunity to finally leave the confines of the room. 

“Is that really what you want to ask?” Pidge’s tone was low, bitter. “You’re not going to ask how it happened? You’re not going to say ‘Oh! He’s blind! Poor thing-’ or try to call me insensitive…”

There was a thousand questions that Shiro had on his mind. Lance’s lack of sight was not a single one of them. “No.” He said simply. This seemed to catch Pidge by surprise. “Although… there are a few things I do want to ask-” Shiro walked towards the bookshelf and pulled one without looking. “Why do you have so many books on plant life?” 

“I’m a witch, what do you think? It’s my area of expertise. Medicine, potions, and even poison if need be.” They laid out on the floor with a dull expression. “Lance is one too. He’s one of those dancy ones that can make it rain.” They frowned. “Although he hasn’t done it in awhile…” 

Shiro hummed. “I’m… sure he has his reasons.” 

Pidge shrugged. “Actually, can you- leave? I need to work on something and I don’t like an audience.” 

“Of course.” 

* * *

 

Pidge was a private kind of person when it came to her work, or at least that what Lance had told him. It was more of weird quirk of hers. Shiro was told never to take it personally, as well as to never, ever touch her things from now on. 

“She means well. Easy to frustrate but… she’s practically family. Can’t be too mad at the twerp” Lance informed Shiro that Pidge was a very big help in his home, even before Lance had lost his eyesight. “Pidge will warm up to you! Promise! It took her ages before she could even tolerate me!” 

Shiro insisted he wasn’t bothered by her kicking him out. He had offered to leave her alone in the first place. Somehow Lance convinced himself Shiro was broken up over it and kept going on and on about how Pidge was a good person. He didn’t doubt it one bit but-

“She can be really clumsy to let me tell you. It could be quiet as can be in the house and then BAM!” Lance claps for emphasis. “All you hear is the sound of her books toppling all over the floor. Only her I swear.” Just as he’s about to start up again, Lance nearly takes down a small end table he bumped into. He blushed and grumbled something in another tongue. Latin perhaps?

Shiro made no attempt to jest or comment on it. “What kind of person are you?” 

“What do you mean…?” 

“You’ve talked about Pidge the entire afternoon. And I’ve been here for some time… yet I don’t know a single thing about you besides your name.” There was never an opportune moment to bring it up before. “I’d like to know the person that helped me.” 

“... oh-... of course…” Lance sounded just a tad breathless. “Where do I even begin…” He feels around for the couch and sits down, a bit too carefully. “Well-... What do you want to know?” 

“Everything.” 

* * *

Shiro hadn’t slept for a solid week. He had been awake for far too long and his mind was racing a mile a minute because of the implications from this. It scared him how he was only just slightly tired. It bothered him how he had read through every single book in the house and not even the most dull book couldn’t bore him enough to sleep. 

In theory… he could rest but every time he would lay down slumber didn’t come fast enough. His body just wasn’t tired the way it should have been. Shiro even tried over exhausting himself with house work, as much as Lance would let him do. Which often time wasn’t enough. He wouldn’t even break a sweat… No. That wasn’t quite right. It was more like he couldn’t sweat. Was something wrong with him? Shiro had tried to bring it up to Lance but he would always get the same response. 

‘You’re fine.’

‘This is normal.’

‘This is perfectly natural.’

It absolutely wasn’t. There was no way that this was normal. It just wasn’t… human.  

The old journal Shiro had read way back when flashed through his mind. HIs skin felt like it was crawling the moment he remembered what he read. Everything that had ever happened, the little things about him that were just… wrong- all pointed to the one thing he couldn’t bring himself to accept. He needed to hear it. 

That was why he was standing in front of Pidge’s door. On several different occasions Pidge had proven to be rather blunt. That was merely a quality of hers she couldn’t quite help and not once had Shiro ever faulted her for it. Right now, he’s certain he’s going to be grateful for that harsh honesty of hers. 

Shiro gathered up his resolve and knocked. “Pidge? If you’re not too busy I’d like to ask you something.” Pidge didn’t respond right away. It was quiet for a bit too long. Shiro contemplated knocking again. 

“You may enter.” She sounded a bit muffled. When Shiro opens the door he finds her crawling out from beneath her bed. “Not here either….” She mumbled. 

“Did you lose something?” 

Pidge dusted off her skirt as she stood up. “One of my books went missing- haven’t been able to find it.” Pidge shrugged it off. “It’ll turn up eventually. So what was it you wanted to ask me?” 

“Oh- I- uh…” Shiro couldn’t find the right words. This wasn’t exactly something he prepared for. How does someone just ask whether or not they’re some undead abomination? “Do you- know where that book on Necromancy is?” He figured that was a good enough place to start. 

“Yeah.” Pidge looked uncomfortable. “Why?” 

“Would it be possible for me to look through it?” 

She twitched. “Why do you need to look through it?” 

“I need to confirm something.” 

“Confirm what!?” Pidge stomped. “Look I- I can’t show it to you!” She couldn’t look at Shiro. “Lance told me not to show you that book! I’ve broken vases, furniture and his favorite compact mirror once but I don’t break promises!” 

“Then can you answer me one thing. You can do that, right?” 

“...sure.” 

“I’m not normal, Pidge. No matter how many times Lance says I am I know I’m not. I barely need sleep. I barely need food. I’m… grey and cold… I’m not human, am I?”

“...” Pidge bit her lip. “No. You’re not.”

* * *

“You don’t have to keep beating yourself up over this.” The way Lance rubbed his shoulder was soothing. “There’s no time limit so why rush?”

Shiro couldn’t take advantage of Lance’s hospitality. He had lived under this roof for nearly a year now and he still couldn’t remember a thing prior to meeting Lance. There was another person out there, someone he should know, looking for him. Yet here he was… leisurely spending his days. The fact that Shiro was even still walking was proof that the witch that summoned him was still alive… It was all so frustrating.

“You… don’t plan on leaving do you? To look for them?” Lance leaned his forehead into Shiro’s shoulder. 

“Not now. I could look for them but that wouldn’t be a very smart idea considering I don’t even remember what they look like…” 

Lance laughed softly. If Shiro were foolish enough to believe his cold dead heart were still beating, it felt as though it had just skipped one. “No, that wouldn’t be a very smart idea.” The smile on his lips just wasn’t quite as sunny this time around. “... you know you can stay as long as you want right?” 

“I know. And I’m truly grateful for that. I’d-” Shiro thought about the repercussions of confessing. He knew exactly what Lance would say. That wasn’t something he wanted to hear right now but he couldn’t stop himself from being open with him. Lance brought out a side of him he never knew he had. “I’d stay forever if I could.”

“Then stay. Forever.” Lance didn’t miss a beat. “This is your home now. It always will be.” 

Shiro placed his hand over Lance’s that rested on his shoulder. He squeezed it gently. “You know I can’t do that.” He wanted to though. Shiro had grown to love it in this homey little cottage in the middle of the swamp. 

Lance sighed. “Just promise me… that when you do leave that you’ll come back to visit?” 

“Promise.” 

“Don’t you dare break that promise either! I’m the last witch you want to break a promise with…” 

Shiro would have felt threatened if Lance hadn’t been nuzzled into his side. “I won’t.” He kissed the top of Lance’s head. “And may I rot in a soggy coffin before I ever think of breaking a promise made to you.”    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
